REVIEW: Bake for You, Albany DelSo Cookie [PHOTO]

Wally Amos

You may have seen my blog entry on Bake For You, aka my new favorite cookies in the Capital District, what you may not have known is that with the help of All Good Bakers, they decided to come up with a signature DelSo (Delaware South) cookie. After receiving about 22 submissions, they decided on 6 top contenders that they would make and open to the public to decide on. The 6 they decided on either had to do with the ease of baking the cookie or getting the actual ingredients and were not picked randomly. The cookie tasting was held on March 8 and the Official DelSo Cookie was decided on March 19 but I figured it’d still be good to share what was in the running and what did end up winning. I decided to wait a bit of time after the cookie tasting because I wanted the DelSo community to be able to have time to accept the winner without knowing its competition. I feel enough time has gone by to share with you what could have been!

I started with the Mexican Chocolate (cocoa/cayenne/cinnamon) with dried cherries and hazelnuts (DelSo #6). I really liked it, you could surely taste the Mexican spice in the cookie and spicy chocolate just happens to be a favorite flavor of mine. This paired with the hazelnut, in my opinion, was one of the most delicious. I don’t usually see hazelnuts in cookies often and I really like it so this was one of my favorites. I don’t usually like cherries so it says something for how well it goes with the rest of the flavors that I didn’t even notice a strong cherry flavor but I did know they were there. The next cookie was a pecan dark chocolate chip cookie with hints of orange zest (DelSo #5). This mostly just tasted like a regular chocolate chip cookie until the lingering orange after taste that wasn’t very pleasant. Yes, chocolate oranges are delicious in my opinion but this didn’t transfer so well in cookie form.

The next cookie I tasted was a chocolate chip cookie with popcorn and pine nuts(DelSo #4). I hate to say it but this was probably my least favorite. The pine nuts were a strange flavor mixed in with chocolate and popcorn that I didn’t enjoy. Also, the popcorn became squishy in the baking process and I ended up with bits of nuts and popcorn kernels in my mouth which wasn’t a great experience. I could see this going over well with kids but not the best cookie in my opinion. The fourth cookie I got to try was maple pecan shortbread topped with cinnamon sugar (DelSo #3). I liked this cookie, it wasn’t my favorite but I liked it. The cinnamon sugar really brought out the maple pecan flavor but I don’t think this had enough of a shortbread flavor or consistency to be called a shortbread but I still would have eaten it, it was tasty. I also don’t think a cookie representing a neighborhood should be a plain as a shortbread cookie, it needs something with more flavor.

The next cookie was Maple Toffee based cookie with dried chopped apples (DelSo #2). I liked this one but again nothing special about this cookie to represent a neighborhood. The apples enhanced the flavor and it went well with the maple toffee but nothing that’s gonna shout “DELSO” to the Capital District. The last cookie was oats, butterscotch and semi-sweet chips, coconut and dried cranberries (DelSo #1). This cookie ended up winning and is your official DelSo cookie! Yay! Having heard from some DelSo residents that night what the feeling of DelSo is, this is the right choice. Coconut isn’t my personal favorite flavor or consistency but I know I’m one of the few. If you run into this cookie in the DelSo, give it a try, it’s very delicious if you like coconut!

Thank you Jess for your account of the DelSo cookie contest! Jerry, I think you might be one of the few who don’t like this cookie, they are disappearing quickly from the shop every day and Nick and I always manage to sneak a small one when they come in warm from BFY in the mornings. We love them and the community seems to too. The winning submission was created by Lissa D., who owned the Chocolate Gecko which used to be housed in our space at 540 Del Ave. We think it’s a nice touch that her combo won (plus she’s becoming a dear friend to us). Thanks so much for coming Jess!!